About CIRIMEX

Introduction

With the influx of so many Spanish speakers, many United States professionals, whose work rests upon a confidential relationship with clients -- for example, doctors, lawyers, social workers, police officers, and clergy -- are finding that they can't work effectively without knowing Spanish because clients don't really want to work through an interpreter.

Each of our courses is prepared as an one-on-one tutorial specifically for such professionals mentioned above. So, CIRIMEX offers many types of programs. We provide total immersion, one-on-one Spanish language and Hispanic culture tutorial programs in a genuine Hispanic environment -- Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. The City of Guadalajara and its environs serve as an open 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week complete language laboratory-in-the-round!

Since 1984, CIRIMEX has offered intensive, integrated, total immersion programs to develop both language fluency and a comprehensive knowledge of contemporary Mexican society. The one-on-one tutorial programs in a deliberately small (less than twenty-five) student body, are presented in the home-like, welcoming and supportive environment of the beautiful CIRIMEX campus in Guadalajara, Mexico. All programs present information about and generate sensitivity to the living/working patterns of Latin American people, using Mexico as a case study and Guadalajara and its environs as its laboratory. The programs are designed for less-than-fluent professionals and students who need to communicate better with Spanish-speaking clients in the United States and abroad. Professionals planning a career change that will involve working with the Spanish-speaking who need rapidly to upgrade their language capability will find the programs invaluable.

INTEGRATED CIRIMEX LANGUAGE/CULTURE PROGRAMS are presented in a variety of settings. Classroom sessions teaching grammar, vocabulary, rhetoric and other language skills are complemented with the pedagogic use of guided tours, lectures and short-term participatory activities.

to provide a variety of settings for exercising communication skills. They acquaint students not only with the language of the groups but also with their lifestyles, dynamics, operating patterns, together with their relation to and interaction with competing and subsuming groups and communities.

"CIRIMEX's Mexico is truly a university for the spirit!" - From a former CIRIMEX student

About CIRIMEX

To the average U. S. visitor, Mexico seems like a world apart. Its indigenous and colonial backgrounds are very much a part of today's Mexico. Some Mexicans live a very simple life, others enjoy tables of plenty and grand lifestyles. However, life for most people lies somewhere in between. Overall the similarities with U.S. life surround the visitor and one quickly and comfortably settles in to enjoy the life and explore the differences.

Guadalajara is now a rapidly growing city with a population approaching 10 million, at once colonial and up-to-date. It is located about 350 miles west and a little north of Mexico City in the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains of western Mexico. Because of its mile high elevation, it has a very moderate spring-like climate the year round. Tapping into the resources Guadalajara offers, we present superb courses that are economical, efficient, and student-centered. There is a strong focus on developing professionally competent language and cultural fluency with a major emphasis on understanding the Latin culture. Although there are many Hispanic ethnic groups in the United States, 80% of U.S. Hispanics are Mexican, so Guadalajara is a good place to start acquiring useful knowledge about Hispanics. CIRIMEX is located in Chapalita, a residential sector in the western suburbs with easy access to all points of interest. Chapalita is a quiet, tree-lined, residential neighborhood of pleasant homes, apartment buildings, restaurants, shopping malls, churches, school, and small shops.

Our Campus

In keeping with the residential aspects of Chapalita and our philosophy of learning, our campus maintains a home-like atmosphere. We studiously de-emphasize the institutional aspects of the program and focus on the individual student -- a total one-on-one approach. An exception can be make to accommodate pre-formed groups, that is, several people who decided before coming to CIRIMEX that they want to share a teacher, but we never create a "class" unless asked to do so.

The instructional program is specifically designed for each student according to what the student tells us of his/her current language facility, professional goals and objectives, preferred mode of learning and a detailed placement test. The planned program is revised as needed to reflect growth and/or additional or changing interests. Enrollment is limited to 25 persons at a time to ensure that the needs of each student will be recognized and accommodated. The program operates the year round. Because of its one-on-one format, students my begin class at any time and attend as long as they choose.

The classrooms are well-equipped and comfortable. There are beautiful, pleasant, flower-filled lounges, patios, terraces and a pool. Our fine facilities allow students to enjoy a snack and to chat informally with staff, teachers or other in the program. Students may help themselves to the complimentary coffee, tea and a bottomless cookie jar!

CIRIMEX operates the year round. It takes no time off for either Mexican or U.S. holidays except Christmas and New Year's Day. Break times, evenings and weekends provide opportunities to celebrate other milestones, holidays and farewells.

The Main Pillar of The CIRIMEX Experience

Let's take a look at the CIRIMEX language programs. Students in our pastoral programs are generally church personnel, diocesan clergy from seminarians to archbishops, clergy from many religious orders, male and female. There are seminarians and in-service personnel, together with non-clergy from various chancery offices. They come from dioceses, seminaries and orders nationwide and more than twenty-five foreign countries worldwide.

For every student we offer the one-on-one, 6 hour/day, 5 day/week tutorial which is key to the firm foundation and rapid progress students experience. The tutorial approach is also key to the efficiency and economy of our courses. It insures that all of the time the students invest in our immersion program contributes to their learning experience. Even with small classes of 2 or 3, each person would get only one half or one third of the instructor's time.

Our students are never struggling to maintain the pace of their classmates or marking time while others are trying to catch up with them. Every minute of class time addresses their needs. The tutorial format, because it is so intense and compact, makes CIRIMEX ideal for in-service training of professionals. It reduces the time professionals must be away from their jobs and the cost of maintaining themselves during a longer course or multiple courses. Our outstanding teaching staff focuses on developing a ready-to-use language and cultural fluency and a precise professional vocabulary rather than an academic acquaintance with from-the-text Spanish.

These factors make the CIRIMEX program most effective and most economical while maintaining a pleasant, comfortable, casual, supportive but purposeful atmosphere. Together they make The CIRIMEX Experience the best available Spanish language and Latin culture training in the hemisphere.

The training portion of the CIRIMEX program is rather intense so we maintain a relaxed, pleasant, comfortable, stress-free environment on campus to enhance the ability to focus and concentrate on the learning. There is a morning coffee break from 11 to 11:30. Before or after classes or during breaks student and teachers gather in the student lounge, the pool patio, the gardens or the terraces to relax, snack or chat.

Students arrive for morning classes at 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and for afternoon classes from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Like the rest of Mexico, we observe the 1 to 4 p.m. downtime for a leisurely midday meal. The three hour break allows time for study, a run, a nap, a swim or simply rest and relaxation.